MEN AND THE BELIEF THAT WOMEN SHOULD DO ALL THE HOUSEHOLD CHORES

Specialization of tasks in families has always been associated with gender. But men have in most cases been judges of their own on what they should be doing and plan on what their partner side/women should. A characteristic of men chauvinism. Naturally men find domestic chores unpleasant and boring preferring more tasks of physical nature. This can be attributed perhaps due to different circumstances men has encountered on the course of evolution and later passed on from the ancestors to the modern men of today.

Traditionally, a woman is treated as a mother, children care and domestic manager while a man is an income earner and head of the household. Gender inequality is not uncommon in most part of the world particularly Africa. In Tanzania for example it’s a taboo to some tribes for a man to be seen in a kitchen preparing meals or anything. Availability of safe and clean drinking water is a problem and women with kids on their backs wake up very early in the morning and travel many miles away in the bushes to fetch water; without a tiny assistance from men.

Men’s less participation in the domestic chores always triggers so many conflicts to arise in the families from battering, unexpected child pregnancies, school drop outs, poor family planning and also divorces.

In today’s world where there is a widening gap between the rich and the poor the traditional notion of fatherhood and motherhood for a men and women respectively is changing. As in the affluent societies where you have a baby sitters and house girls as well as house boys to take care of the domestic chores. It is further amazing that even infant kids are taken to day care centers. Above all, a woman engages in economic activities and brings earnings to the households. A man has a turn to prepare lunch and dinner and serve the table.

If we take an example of a married couple of which the holy Bible in the Ephesians Chapter5:31 say, ‘A man leaves his father and the mother and is joined to his wife and the two are united into one.’ Also Ephesians Chapter 5:33 tell, ‘So again I say each man must love his wife as he loves himself and the wife must respect her husband.’ Here God emphasizes special love between the married people. What role will be played by either a man or a woman should be preceded by love. Bottom line is the well being of the families and not what a man does and vice versa.

Women’s empowerment can be obtained when there is equality, respect and dignity among men and women. Furthermore men effective participation in the domestic activities brings about quality and development in the families. Since the man is the head and the woman is the body and two is one. There can’t be head without body and vice versa.